Deadly Game: Almighty Boss’s Guide to Making Money

Chapter 1359. Exploring the Old House (6)

"Lately, I have been unable to sleep at night, always feeling that there are strange noises in the house. Every night around midnight, I hear sobbing sounds coming from the east wing, but I can't find any trace of them. Yesterday, while sorting through my father's belongings, I found an ancient scroll in a secret compartment of the study. It records that when the Moon Hidden House was first built, people were buried alive with the dead, and the resentment is now pent up, which may cause great trouble."

I intended to burn the ancient scrolls, but the clan elders stopped me, saying that the scrolls were the foundation of the Shi family and should not be touched lightly. I am now uneasy, as if a great calamity is about to befall me. If I disappear, do not look for me, but leave the Moon Hermitage immediately to protect yourselves.

Shi Yueci's Last Words

There was no date at the end of the letter, only a blurry stamp.

"Human sacrifice?" Su Xiaoqing gasped, her face turning pale. "No wonder this house is so eerie; there's such a history here."

—Holy crap, I got goosebumps just listening to that.

——Who says it’s not!

—Mingming123's voice is very pleasant to hear.

Human sacrifice is nothing new; it was common in ancient times, wasn't it?

Lu Kexing frowned.

"Shi Yueci mentioned strange noises in the east wing and that ancient scroll. Perhaps these are the keys to his disappearance. Moreover, the letter said, 'If I disappear, do not look for me.' Did he foresee that something bad would happen to him?"

Bai also looked at the wall clock; the hands had already pointed to 6:40.

"It'll be 7 PM in twenty minutes. The taboo rules say we can't touch the wooden drawers. The bookshelves and display shelves in the main hall are all made of wood, so there must be a lot of drawers. We need to leave here before 7 PM, or find a way to avoid the taboo."

Wen Yang suddenly pointed to a small door on the west side of the main hall.

"Look, that door seems to lead to a study; maybe the ancient scrolls are still inside!"

The small door was hidden behind the display shelf. If Wen Yang hadn't been short and happened to peek out, almost no one would have noticed it.

Lin Xi walked to the door and pushed it, but the door was locked.

"The door was locked, and it looked like an old-fashioned brass lock that was hard to pry open."

Lu Ke walked forward and carefully examined the keyhole.

"I've seen this kind of lock before; it can be opened with a thin wire. Does anyone have a wire?"

Bai also took a paperclip out of his backpack, straightened it, and handed it to Lu Kexing.

"This should be fine."

Lu Kexing took the paperclip, carefully inserted it into the keyhole, and gently turned it. A short while later, a "click" was heard, and the lock opened.

Pushing open the small door, there was indeed a study inside.

The study was smaller than the main hall. Against the wall stood a huge wooden desk, piled high with books, writing brushes, ink, paper, and an open inkstone, the ink inside of which had dried up.

There is a wooden drawer on each side of the desk, and the drawers are carved with exquisite cloud patterns.

"Be careful, don't touch the drawers," Lin Xi warned, her gaze sweeping across the desk.

Most of the books on the desk were ancient books, and some of them had loose pages scattered on the table.

She picked up a book at random; the cover read "Chronicles of the Hidden Moon Residence." She opened the first page, which recorded the history of the Shi family's rise to power, but there was nothing particularly special about it.

Bai Ye was inspecting the desk when he noticed a small groove in the lower right corner with the character "月" (moon) engraved inside.

"There's a groove here, very similar to the one on the front door. Could it be that we need some kind of item to trigger it?"

Su Xiaoqing suddenly pointed to the wall above the desk: "There's a hidden compartment there!"

Everyone looked up and saw a landscape painting hanging on the wall. The painting was placed in a rather abrupt position, with a noticeable gap between its edge and the wall.

Lu Ke walked over and gently removed the landscape painting. Sure enough, there was a square hidden compartment on the wall, inside which was an old wooden box. "This wooden box! It's exactly the same as the one I saw through the peephole before!" Lin Xi said.

Lu Ke walked over and gently took down the landscape painting. Sure enough, there was a square hidden compartment on the wall, and inside the compartment was an old wooden box.

—We've finally found the key!

—There must be a big secret in this wooden box.

—As 123 mentioned before, they saw the wooden box through the peephole, and sure enough, it's here!

Lu Kexing took the wooden box out of the hidden compartment and placed it on the desk.

The wooden box is dark brown all over, and the material looks like high-quality sandalwood. There are no keyholes or extra decorations on the surface.

There is only a shallow groove around the edge of the box, and there seems to be very faint lines engraved in the groove, which cannot be noticed at all unless you look closely.

Wen Yang reached out and touched the wooden box first. Just as his fingertips touched the surface of the box, Lin Xi gently patted the back of his hand.

"Be careful, don't touch anything carelessly, there might be a trap."

"Know it."

Wen Yang withdrew his hand, muttered something, and walked around to the other side of the desk to examine the wooden box.

"But it doesn't even have a lock, so how come it can't be opened?"

He tried to gently pry open the lid, but the wooden box didn't budge, as if it were firmly held in place by something.

Bai also moved closer to the groove on the edge of the wooden box.

"The patterns in these grooves are a bit strange, like the outline of some kind of mark, but not complete."

The faint lines twist and intertwine, vaguely resembling a combination of several flowers.

Su Xiaoqing walked to the desk and carefully examined the wooden box.

"This groove must have been opened with something."

Lu Kexing looked around the study, his brow furrowed.

There aren't many places in the study where clues could be hidden. We've already looked at the things on the desk, and there's nothing unusual. Could there be something else in the hidden compartment?

He walked back to the wall and reached out to feel around the hidden compartment. His fingertips touched only cold, hard blue bricks, with no sign of loosening.

Wen Yang thought for a while, then his eyes lit up. He ran to his desk, picked up the book "Chronicles of the Hidden Moon Residence," and started flipping through it.

The pages were yellowed and brittle, so he turned them with extra care. But after flipping through them from beginning to end, he found that they were full of family trivia and the history of the Shi family's rise to power.

"Useless, useless, all nonsense." Wen Yang threw the book back onto the desk, somewhat deflated.

Lin Xi did not participate in the search, but stood in the center of the study, his gaze slowly sweeping over every corner of the room.

From the mountain of ancient books to the dried-up inkstone, and the landscape painting hanging on the wall... wait, there seems to be something else where the landscape painting was just taken down?
She walked quickly to the wall and examined it carefully by the light of her flashlight.

It turns out that there were two smaller portrait paintings hanging on each side of the landscape painting. Because they were mostly obscured by the landscape painting and the lighting was dim, I hadn't noticed them at all before.

The four portraits are all the same size, with rustic wooden frames and a thin layer of dust on the surface.

"Come and take a look here," Lin Xi called to the others.

Several people immediately surrounded them.

Lu Kexing reached out and gently brushed away the dust from the picture frames, revealing the full view of the four portraits.

(End of this chapter)